History Main / BloodSplatteredWeddingDress

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[[caption-width-right:350:[[ActionGirl The Warden]]'s wedding didn't go quite as planned...]]

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* ''Series/MidsomerMurders'': In "Till Death Do Us Part", the second VictimOfTheWeek is shot with ball bearings while modelling a wedding dress at a bridal show, leading to this trope.

* ''Literature/{{Twilight}}'':

** In an early case, the imagery [[http://www.detectiveconanworld.com/wiki/File:EP18_Case.jpg is played straight]] since the poor bride [[BloodFromTheMouth bleeds profusely from the mouth]] after [[spoiler: she's poisoned by her groom in revenge for her OverprotectiveDad's part in the (accidental) death of said groom's mother, 20 years ago.]] [[spoiler:Unusually for this trope, the bride survives and ultimately gets better.]]

There's something about seeing a woman in a white [[VirginInAWhiteDress bridal gown]] which is [[BloodIsTheNewBlack covered in blood]]. The juxtaposition of the joyous event the wedding dress is supposed to signify with the brutality or tragedy that the blood indicates makes for a striking image. The fact that [[WhiteAndRedAndEerieAllOver the red of the blood stands out well against the white of the dress]] adds to this.

May overlap with EtherealWhiteDress if its implied that the bride died in the dress. Compare with WhiteShirtOfDeath, BloodstainedGlassWindows and SnowMeansDeath. See also WeddingSmashers, which more often than not causes this. May overlap with WidowedAtTheWedding. See also WightInAWeddingDress.

* This is Magrat Garlick in ''Literature/LordsAndLadies'' when the Elves invade Lancre on the eve of her wedding. Except that the bloodstains are mainly green.

* Spanish horror film ''Film/{{REC}}[[superscript:3]] Genesis'' is about [[ZombieApocalypse an outbreak]] of a [[NotUsingTheZWord demonic]] [[TheVirus virus]] at a couple's wedding reception, at one point the bride Clara [[ChainsawGood gets her hands on a chainsaw]] and mows down some monsters leaving her dress covered in blood. This image was used for the films poster as can be seen [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/REC_3:_Genesis on its page]] over at Wiki/TheOtherWiki.

* The sad case of Estrella Carrera, who was found [[http://abclocal.go.com/wls/story?section=news/local&id=8660925 stabbed to death]] shortly after her wedding, still dressed in her wedding gown.
* [[https://www.cbsnews.com/news/bride-shot-before-wedding/ Gladys Ricart]] was shot to death by her ex-boyfriend while getting ready for her wedding.
* During the worst periods of the pogroms in [[UsefulNotes/TsaristRussia Imperial Russia]], it was not uncommon for anti-Semites to seek out new brides specifically as targets for their violence as a symbolic gesture (since the brides would eventually bear the next generation of Jewish children). Since custom in the brides' communities dictated that the dead be buried in whatever they were wearing when they died, several of these young women were laid to rest in their bloodied wedding gowns. (This, incidentally, was the origin behind the folk tale that inspired ''WesternAnimation/CorpseBride''.)
* UsefulNotes/JacquelineKennedy, First Lady to President UsefulNotes/JohnFKennedy, was well known as TheFashionista, and on November 22, 1963 she wore a pink Chanel suit while riding through Dallas with her husband. When JFK was murdered that day, the image of her in that pink suit stained with her husband's blood became one of the most enduring images of the assassination. Her suit is now in the National Archives.

* Another not wedding dress example, Creator/HelenMirren's character in ''Film/{{Red}}'' is shot in the gut and bleeds on her white dress (she survives, though).

** That's not a typo by the way: there were three of the films. And there's a remake as well.

* In ''Anime/CodeGeass'', seeing the sweet, naive [[spoiler:Princess Euphemia [[BrainwashedAndCrazy massacring innocents]] in her frilly dress]] was a ''[[WhamEpisode wham]]''. The [[FanNickname fan nicknames]] "Genocide-[[JapaneseHonorifics tan]]" and [[spoiler:Euphinator]] cannot begin to summarize the impact of the scene.

* Cady's Halloween costume in the teen film ''Film/MeanGirls''. The rest of the party react with confusion as she is the only girl who hasn't shown up in a fanservicy PlayboyBunny or SexyWhateverCostume. She probably could have qualified if the dress was more revealing and she wasn't also wearing ScaryTeeth.

* ''Theatre/MeanGirls'' just like in the original film, Cady wears one of these to the Halloween party and stands out for actually being scary instead of in a SexyWhatever / PlayboyBunny style outfit. The theatre version ups the amount of blood on the dress and adds a prop knife sticking into her back so that it's more obvious for anyone in the cheap seats.

* Cady's Halloween costume in the teen film ''Film/MeanGirls''.

* In ''Anime/CodeGeass'', seeing the sweet, naive [[spoiler:Princess Euphemia [[BrainwashedAndCrazy massacring innocents]] in her frilly dress]] was a ''[[WhamEpisode wham]]''. The [[FanNickname fan nicknames]] "Genocide-[[{{Honorifics}} tan]]" and [[spoiler:Euphinator]] cannot begin to summarize the impact of the scene.

* In the series finale of ''Series/Daredevil2015'', [[ComicBook/TheKingpin Wilson Fisk's]] wedding to Vanessa becomes a MeleeATrois between Fisk, Daredevil and Dex (aka ComicBook/{{Bullseye}}). Vanessa, who's caught on the sidelines, ends up with a lot of blood splattered across her wedding dress.

* Three brides are attacked in ''Manga/DetectiveConan'', with different results:
** In an early case, the imagery [[http://www.detectiveconanworld.com/wiki/File:EP18_Case.jpg is played straight]] since the poor bride [[BloodFromTheMouth bleeds profusely from the mouth]] after [[spoiler: she's poisoned by her groom in revenge for her OverprotectiveDad's part in the (accidental) death of said groom's mother, 20 years ago.]] [[spoiler:Unusually for this trope, the bride survives and ultimately gets better.]]
** Ultimately averted in another case: [[spoiler: Satou gets stabbed when first her best friend Yumi and then she pose as {{Body Double}}s of a bride who has been threatened ''and'' she's attacked while wearing the bride-to-be wedding gown... but said gown has [[PocketProtector a thick corset that acts as a protection]]. She then [[KickingAssInAllHerFinery reacts and helps subdue the attacker]].]]
** And in the third case... [[spoiler: The bride ''and'' the groom are murdered. [[RareMaleExample The groom is wearing his white tuxedo when he's found dead]]. [[AvertedTrope The bride is not in her wedding gown, she has a pink dress on instead]].]]

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[[caption-width-right:346:[[ActionGirl The Warden]]'s wedding didn't go quite as planned...]]

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* In ''Film/SmilinThrough'', Moonyean Clare is shot dead at her own wedding. This goes for all three versions of the movie--1922 with Norma Talmadge, 1932 with Norma Shearer, and 1941 with Jeanette [=MacDonald=]. It's also true of the 1919 stage play that the movies were all based on.

* The season 3 finale of ''Series/{{Dexter}}'' ends with a drop of Dexter's blood from his injured wrist falling onto the back of Rita's wedding dress as they dance at their wedding. Possibly a foreshadowing of how marrying a serial killer is going to [[spoiler: get Rita killed by Trinity at the end of season 4]].

* ''Series/ItsAlwaysSunnyInPhiladelphia'' - Mac tries to fake his own death by driving his car into a wall and is badly shaken/concussed by the event. Disappointed that the car doesn't blow up, he takes his friend Charlie to go get something to help things along, he finds a wedding dress in a pawn shop which he is completely enamored with. When he and Charlie return to the car, Mac is wearing the dress and bleeding all over it.

* ''Series/{{MASH}}'' - In the episode "Margaret's Marriage," Head Nurse Margaret Houlihan is being married in the MASH's mess tent, when the ceremony is interrupted by incoming wounded, and after the ceremony is sped up, Houlihan, still in her wedding dress, and the rest of the doctors and nurses, still in their dress uniforms, have to rush to operate on the wounded. They all end up with blood on their clothes.

* In ''Series/OrphanBlack'' Season 2 episode 4, [[spoiler: Helena appears like this after she is forcibly married to one of the [[ReligionOfEvil Prolethians]]. She manages to escape and slashes Daniel's throat in Rachel's apartment to prevent him from harming Sarah further.]]

* ''Series/{{Smallville}}'' - [[spoiler:Chloe Sullivan in season 8, ''Bride'' and ''Legion''. Becomes a component of strong horror when she is possessed by Brainiac.]]

* Princess Victoria Eugenie of Battenberg (better known as Ena) was the youngest granddaughter of Queen Victoria. She married King Alfonso (the last King of Spain before Juan Carlos) in Madrid in 1906. During their carriage procession, an anarchist's bomb exploded, killing many of their entourage. A guardsman riding alongside the bride was [[OffWithHisHead decapitated]], drenching both Ena and her dress in his blood. None of the usual post-wedding photos were made; the press printed sketches instead. It became HarsherInHindsight: Ena passed haemophilia [[note]]a disease that can make people bleed longer than normal, bruise more easily, and be more vulnerable to internal bleeding[[/note]] into the Spanish Royal Family - as with the Romanovs the heir to the throne was afflicted, the monarchy was eventually deposed in 1931, and a bloody civil war ensued.

* The Hong Kong action movie ''Film/BlackCat'' (based on the original ''Film/LaFemmeNikita'' movie) has a scene where the titular assassin bursts into a Jewish wedding and shoots the bride in the head.

* The promotional website for Showtime's series ''Series/PennyDreadful'' displays pictures, poems and items with a "Victorian horror" theme, including a wedding dress on which bloodstains appear if it's clicked.
* In ''Series/OrphanBlack'' Season 2 episode 4, [[spoiler: Helena appears like this after she is forcibly married to one of the [[ReligionOfEvil Prolethians]]. She manages to escape and slashes Daniel's throat in Rachel's apartment to prevent him from harming Sarah further.]]
* In a Season 4 episode of ''Series/{{House}}'', a Patient of the Week becomes ill at her wedding. One of the symptoms is a mild version of this.
* On ''Series/{{Revenge}}'', the third season InMediasRes opening has Emily in her wedding dress aboard a yacht being shot twice by an unseen assailant and falling overboard. When events catch up to the opening, the bloody dress washes ashore without Emily in it and is discovered by Jack and Aiden, alerting them that something has gone horribly wrong.

* ''Series/MidsomerMurders'': In "Till Death Do Us Pass", the second VictimOfTheWeek is shot with ball bearings while modelling a wedding dress at a bridal show, leading to this trope.
* In one episode of ''Series/{{Flashpoint}}'', a gunman tries to kill [[spoiler:Donna Sabine's husband]] during her wedding. He misses but hits the best man in the leg, and Donna, in her wedding dress, ends up being the one to tend to him.
* In the series finale of ''Series/Daredevil2015'', [[ComicBook/TheKingpin Wilson Fisk's]] wedding to Vanessa becomes a MeleeATrois between Fisk, Daredevil and Dex (aka ComicBook/{{Bullseye}}). Vanessa, who's caught on the sidelines, ends up with a lot of blood splattered across her wedding dress.

* Music/AliceCooper's "Roses on White Lace" is a very literal example
* The covers of Music/MyChemicalRomance's "Three Cheers for Sweet Revenge" and "Life On The Murder Scene" feature a woman in a blood-spattered wedding dress (though it's much easier to tell she's in a wedding dress on the cover of the latter).

* An opera based on ''Literature/{{Lolita}}'' ends with Lolita visibly pregnant while wearing a bridal gown with a vaguely hand shaped bloodstain over her vaginal area. It symbolizes her abuse and death in childbirth.

* The Bride's wedding dress becomes this by the end of "Blood Wedding".

* The backstory of the character Bloody Mary from the game ''VideoGame/TwistedMetal Black'' tells how she finally snapped at a friend's wedding, tired of always being the bridesmaid and never the bride. She stabbed the bride to death and stole the bloodstained dress to wear herself.

* ''VideoGame/{{Xenogears}}''.
** Especially unique is that you can get that dress as equipment if you [[spoiler: don't attack Dan in the martial arts tournament]]
* Perhaps not quite the same, but in ''VideoGame/SagaFrontier'', Emilia spends the last scenes of her quest (including the boss fight and following violent scenes) in the wedding dress she never got to wear after her fiancee was murdered. [[spoiler: Of course, if it ends happily, her dress is put to correct use and is completely clean.]] The official artwork of her in her dress and veil, holding a large gun, makes for a striking juxtaposition.
* Subverted in ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyX'', where [[spoiler: Yuna]] wears a very white dress as she attempts to make [[spoiler: Seymour]] un-undead.

* In ''VideoGame/CliveBarkersUndying,'' Lizbeth wears one of these.

* ''VideoGame/InjusticeGodsAmongUs'' has some pretty strange endings, but Harley Quinn's [[JustForPun takes the cake.]]
-->''The defeat of Superman filled Harley with confidence. She knew what she was capable of, and knew what she wanted. She traveled to the visitors' Earth and freed The Joker from prison. Returning to her world, they married in a ceremony that set Gotham ablaze. At the reception, the cake cutting ceremony took a gruesome turn. As her new husband playfully mashed her face into the cake, years of abuse took its toll. Something in Harley snapped. She used the ceremonial knife to slash Joker's throat. Still in her wedding gown, Harley now resides permanently in Arkham Asylum.''

* In ''VideoGame/{{Tekken}} 7'', Nina Williams returns as the Fatal Bride clad in a torn, bloodied wedding dress.
* ''VideoGame/{{Bloodborne}}'' has Yharnam, Pthumerian Queen. Lore heavily implies that it was she who gave birth to [[spoiler:the creature that causes most of the problems later on in the game, [[RealityWarper Mergo]].]] The Blood Stains are mainly around her stomach area, leaving some very disturbing implications, but when you fight her it gets MUCH bloodier...
* The title character of ''VideoGame/{{Guenevere}}'' gets slashed during an assassination attempt during her wedding. She isn't afflicted with any lasting damage, but her FairytaleWeddingDress is.
* Snow White in ''VideoGame/SINoALICE'' is often depicted wearing clothes resembling wedding dresses, with a bloody smear located somewhere on the otherwise pristine, immaculate clothes. [[spoiler:This is relevant to her backstory, as the Evil Queen attacked her at her wedding, prompting the Prince to take the attack and Snow White to kill the Queen, staining her dress with their blood]].

* A blood-spattered bride is not actually seen, but [[http://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/2007/6/22/ in this strip]] we see that ''Webcomic/PennyArcade''[='=]s Tycho and Gabe are well aware of the power of this trope.

* ''Manga/MurderPrincess'' has an archetypal "Disney Princess" dress that gets repeatedly covered in blood, that evokes much the same striking image.

* In ''Anime/GunXSword'', the bloodstained wedding dress is ''all'' we see from Van's late bride.
* ''Manga/HaouAiren'' gives us [[spoiler:Hakuron, the ''groom'', in a blood-splattered white suit after [[LaserGuidedKarma karma catches up with him]] and he's shot to death.]]

* In ''Manga/BattleAngelAlita'', Alita kicks some mecha ass wile wearing a wedding dress at one point. She wasn't going to marry anyone though.

* After Marine Rachel Cole-Alvez has her wedding shot up by members of The Exchange during Creator/GregRucka's run on Comicbook/ThePunisher she's left standing in one of these surrounded by the bodies of her friends and family. She survives, but the trauma drives her to team up with Frank to try and take down The Exchange herself.

* ''FanFic/BurningBridgesBuildingConfidence'' opens with Marinette having a nightmare about Lila hijacking her wedding, showing up at the church in her own gaudy wedding dress and stabbing Marinette to death. Marinette's 'friends' then proceed to accuse her of faking it for attention, while Lila stands triumphantly splattered with her blood.

* ''Film/KillBill'': Unsurprising, given that the main character is a badass [[KatanasAreJustBetter Samurai-swordswoman]] called "The Bride." (A chapter of the film is even called "The Blood-Spattered Bride," a typical Tarantino filmgeek ref to the Spanish vampire film ''La Novia Ensangrentada''.) The final battle was ''supposed to'' involve her fighting in a wedding dress, but due to time constraints, we get the AnticlimaxBoss of [[spoiler:her using a heart-exploding technique on Bill, without him even getting up]].
* ''Film/LittleShopOfHorrors'' features this, although because at the last second a new ending was tacked on, the blood appears and disappears depending on the shot.

** Another not-wedding-dress example: Bette Davis' character in the flashback opener of ''Film/HushHushSweetCharlotte''. It is however a white dress that she wears to a party, where her boyfriend is violently murdered.
** And yet another, Creator/HelenMirren's character in ''Film/{{Red}}'' is shot in the gut and bleeds on her white dress (she survives, though).
** Also Kim's white dress in ''Film/EdwardScissorhands''.
* Visually invoked in ''Film/LaReineMargot'' when [[spoiler: King Charles]] bleeds all over her white gown. Said gown is not Margot's wedding dress, though.
* Cady's Halloween costume in the teen film ''Film/MeanGirls''.
* After everything goes to hell at the end of the obscure horror film ''Film/TheStepfather II'', the female main character staggers in a daze down the aisle in a blood-drenched wedding dress.
** That's not a typo by the way: there were three of the films. And there's a remake as well.
* In the Film/JamesBond film ''Film/OnHerMajestysSecretService'' featuring the first and only time to date where Bond marries, his wife Tracy is [[spoiler:gunned down]] on their wedding night while driving home following the service.
* In the obscure Anna Nicole Smith thriller ''Film/ToTheLimit'', a bride and groom are machine-gunned as they're leaving the church following the wedding ceremony.
* The Hong Kong action movie ''Film/BlackCat'' (based on the original ''Film/LaFemmeNikita'' movie) has a scene where the titular assassin bursts into a Jewish wedding and shoots the bride in the head.
* In ''Film/SmilinThrough'', Moonyean Clare is shot dead at her own wedding. This goes for all three versions of the movie--1922 with Norma Talmadge, 1932 with Norma Shearer, and 1941 with Jeanette [=MacDonald=]. It's also true of the 1919 stage play that the movies were all based on.

* In opening sequence of the comedy zombie movie ''{{Film/Zombieland}}''.
* A mild example in ''Film/{{Pusher}}'', where one of the characters has a nosebleed from taking too much cocaine.

* ''Film/AmericanHeist''. SWAT police shoots a hostage taker when their pursuit of some criminals leads into a wedding, leading to this trope (the bride was standing behind the criminal, who'd snatched a little girl as a HumanShield).
* The teenage purgers in ''Film/ThePurgeElectionYear'' are wearing bloodstained prom dresses when they attack the deli store. One of them makes note that she killed her parents, possibly explaining where its coming from.
* In ''Film/Ms45'', the last man Thana shoots at the Halloween party is dressed as a bride, and he slumps to the ground with blood all over his dress.
* Grace, the protagonist of ''Film/ReadyOrNot'', is forced to become an ActionSurvivor on her wedding night when her in-laws subject her to a [[HuntingTheMostDangerousGame hunt of the most dangerous game]]. Over the span of the film, her lovely white dress is increasingly ripped, torn and splattered with blood and gore. By the finale, it's practically become a uniform, dull red.

* In the last act of Federico Lorca's ''Bodas de Sangre'' (''Blood Wedding''), the bride enters the church where her wedding was to have taken place; her white dress drenched with the blood of both her groom and her true love who have slain each other over her.
* The titular heroine of ''Literature/LornaDoone'' is shot at the altar as she is about to marry the man she loves. [[spoiler:She survives.]]
* The second ''Literature/{{Firekeeper}}'' book, Wolf's Head, Wolf's Heart starts off with a wedding between the new heir to Bright Bay and Hawk Haven, former enemies. Lo and behold, it is interrupted by assassins from the former ruler of Bright Bay not happy with losing her kingdom to a proper leader. The bride takes a massive wound, bleeding all over her dress, while her husband suffers only a very minor wound. Which, you know, is bad, because the weapons were poisoned, and bleeding all over her dress allowed the bride to get the poison out of the blood stream.
* Inverted in ''Literature/LordsAndLadies'', in which Magrat's mail-order Queen dress gets reduced to bloodied shreds ''before'' the wedding, due to her kicking arse during the elves' invasion of Lancre Castle. She could've changed clothes afterwards, but she and Verence decided not to wait a moment longer and got hitched in what they were wearing at the time. Bonus points for wearing the wedding dress over a suit of armor.
* The eponymous character in the book ''Literature/AnnaDressedInBlood'' died in the dress she was going to wear to an school dance, which, of course, was white.
* When Ellony marries Valraven in ''Literature/ChroniclesOfMagravandias'', an old wound reopens and bleeds all over her gown. Played with in that women wear red wedding dresses and Pharinet first thinks the color of the fabric has come off on Ellony's hand.
* Worn by a member of a bloodthirsty war party of Indians in the Creator/CormacMcCarthy novel ''Literature/BloodMeridian'' that they had stripped from one of their previous victims.
* In Katherine Kurtz' Deryni ''Histories of King Kelson'' Princess Sidana of Meara, on the point of being married to King Kelson, is stabbed at the altar by her own brother.
* A variant in ''Literature/MistbornTheOriginalTrilogy'': Vin proposes to, and marries, Elend while bleeding from at least three severe wounds, including one in her left boob.
* It's not Sophia's wedding dress exactly in ''Literature/KingdomOfLittleWounds'', but the nightdress she dies in on her wedding night gets very messy.

* ''Series/{{Mash}}'' - In the episode "Margaret's Marriage," Head Nurse Margaret Houlihan is being married in the MASH's mess tent, when the ceremony is interrupted by incoming wounded, and after the ceremony is sped up, Houlihan, still in her wedding dress, and the rest of the doctors and nurses, still in their dress uniforms, have to rush to operate on the wounded. They all end up with blood on their clothes.

* The season 3 finale of ''Series/{{Dexter}}'' ends with a drop of Dexter's blood from his injured wrist falling onto the back of Rita's wedding dress as they dance at their wedding. Possibly a foreshadowing of how marrying a serial killer is going to [[spoiler: get Rita killed by Trinity at the end of season 4]].

* In the ''Series/{{Torchwood}}'' episode "A Day In The Death", [[spoiler:Maggie, a woman Owen later talks to, was covered in blood following the fatal car crash an hour after her wedding.]] Also, in "Something Borrowed" [[spoiler:Gwen's wedding dress gets splattered with some black alien blood]].

* An episode of ''Series/LieToMe'' has a bride spattered with blood when her new husband is shot at the reception.
* Kamen Rider has done this once in [[Series/KamenRiderKiva Kiva]]. [[spoiler:Mio attempts to kill Taiga during their wedding ceremony. However the blood is later shed on her by Bishop.]] It should be noted this is the only time we see a [[OurVampiresAreDifferent Fangire]] bleeding, and even then its [[BlackBlood blue]].
** [[Series/KamenRiderDecade Decade]] where in her visions Natsumi is always wearing a white dress. It is revealed it the last episode to be a wedding dress. It also crosses with ''Blood Spattered Innocent'' as she is forced to watch either [[OmnicidalManiac Decade]] kill everyone or Decade get killed. [[spoiler:The season finale hints at the latter, though he survived for two new movies to end the series in December]]
* ''Series/RizzoliAndIsles'': "Cuts Like a Knife" opens with a bride staggering into a wedding chapel, her dress soaked with blood from her cut throat.
* ''Series/BreakoutKings'': In "Off the Beaten Path", Erica is captured and dressed in a wedding veil by the escapee after she has freed his original victim. Charlie rescues her by shooting the escapee, splattering Erica and the veil with his blood.
* ''Series/DocMartin'': [[spoiler:Louisa]], after a man's carotid artery is cut in the course of her honeymoon from hell.